It's so easy to feel considerable sympathy for the OP's point.
Except that I then wonder if I am supposed to learn German to fly over the border to there, Switzer-Deutsch for then a lunch stop in Basel, Flemmish for a stop in Belgium on the way home.
I work in aviation, and I travel a lot - this year clocking up 8 countries, in all of which I was working at airports. Aside from my native English, and reasonable French, which other languages should I start on? And where should I compromise my other skills currency to concentrate on languages.
My parallel, I was working in Switzerland this year for a while, and having some reputation in Jiu Jitsu I was asked to go and do some teaching at a local club, which I did.
Did I do this in Switzer-Deutsch? - no, I don't speak it. Did I use English? - no, most of them didn't speak it. I taught in (very limited!) Japanese, which worked fine.
I suspect that if I was a professional chef, I'd probably travel the world working in French.
The fact is, fields need common languages - constrained almost certainly to a narrow vocabulary - but it needs them anyhow. In aviation, it does seem to be English.
Yes, I'll make an effort when I fly to France to know French RT calls, and not to screw up - but it's wrong that this should be necessary.
G